Adding Sirius XM Nav Traffic

[IBGECKO]

I am the original owner of my 2009 Pilot. It came with the 3 months of XM Radio, that I have renewed on an annual basis. Today I called Sirius XM to add Nav Traffic to my service, which they assured me that my Pilot supports, and after spending 40 minutes on the phone with them, my Navigation and Satellite system does not seem to recognize Nav Traffic at all. The guy from Sirius suggested I take the car to the dealer and have the satellite and radio reset, and the dealer says that's nonsense, which I tend to believe. Has anyone here had this problem when adding Nav Traffic, and if so, what should I do?

[HenryBravo]

The 2009 Pilot does not support NavTraffic, plain and simple. There is simply no option for it anywhere within the GUI. The only way to add it is with an aftermarket system. AFAIK, this feature was not added until the 2012 models.

Here is a somewhat outdated list of the cars that support it natively, up to 2010. The Pilot is not listed.

[rcase13]

LOL yeah SiriusXM is one bone head of a company. I continue to get calls to renew radios that were canceled over a year ago. Too bad they are the only game in town.

[wickerbill]

Yeah, they must think the pre-2012 pilots have this option because I keep getting emails to add it to my wife's pilot even though I know it doesn't support it.

[LanceHS]

FYI that I believe my 2012 Pilot actually gets traffic via Honda's FM Traffic service, not SiriusXM NavTraffic. It's a lifetime, free service provided by NAVTEQ via an FM signal. I have poked around and I don't believe I have the option to subscribe to the SirusXM service. Anyway, if you are interested: http://automobiles.honda.com/traffic

[HenryBravo]

Originally Posted by LanceHS

FYI that I believe my 2012 Pilot actually gets traffic via Honda's FM Traffic service, not SiriusXM NavTraffic. It's a lifetime, free service provided by NAVTEQ via an FM signal. I have poked around and I don't believe I have the option to subscribe to the SirusXM service. Anyway, if you are interested: FM Traffic for Honda Cars - Official Site

Thanks, that is good to know. Now that I've read the link you provided, I agree with you - SiriusXM NavTraffic doesn't appear to be used at all, nor is it required for the traffic/congestion feature.

On a side note, it appears that each of us with 2012 Pilots might be anonymous participants in this service. Our cars may be reporting our speeds to NAVTEQ. From the Honda link you provided: (relevant portion highlighted in red)

Q: Where does the Honda FM Traffic data come from?
A: Honda FM Traffic data comes from a variety of proprietary and public sources.
Traffic sensors—Installed on the most-driven roadways in major markets, they collect a variety of real-time data about traffic conditions.
NAVTEQ sensors—NAVTEQ owns and operates the largest private traffic-sensor network.
Government sensors—NAVTEQ includes data from thousands of miles of government sensors nationwide.
Toll-tags—NAVTEQ also includes data from toll-tag readers (such as EZ-Pass in New York).
Commercial-based Probe Data—NAVTEQ daily collects millions of traffic data points from a large number of partnering commercial fleets.
Consumer-based Probe Data—NAVTEQ also utilizes large volumes of anonymous speed data from millions of GPS-enabled consumer-navigation devices, the practice also referred to as crowd-sourcing
Incidents—NAVTEQ collects data on accidents, construction and road closures from our own operations centers nationwide.


I wonder if "GPS-enabled consumer-navigation devices" include the built-in NAV units in our SUVs?

[LanceHS]

Originally Posted by HenryBravo

Consumer-based Probe Data—NAVTEQ also utilizes large volumes of anonymous speed data from millions of GPS-enabled consumer-navigation devices, the practice also referred to as crowd-sourcing
Incidents—NAVTEQ collects data on accidents, construction and road closures from our own operations centers nationwide.


I wonder if "GPS-enabled consumer-navigation devices" include the built-in NAV units in our SUVs?

Now that is VERY interesting. If true, I wonder how they could collect the data? It would either have to be something like via a transmitter (cellular) or with an RFID type tag. I don't think my Pilot is transmitting without my linked-iPhone.

Any ideas? Maybe a web-search is in order...


Sent from my Autoguide iPad app

[rafael73]

i use the Garmin traffic adapter. so far, can't complain.

[HenryBravo]

Originally Posted by LanceHS

Now that is VERY interesting. If true, I wonder how they could collect the data? It would either have to be something like via a transmitter (cellular) or with an RFID type tag. I don't think my Pilot is transmitting without my linked-iPhone.

Any ideas? Maybe a web-search is in order...

Okay I think I've figured out at least part of the puzzle. After doing some searching around, it appears that NAVTEQ (which owns traffic.com) has been installing digital sensor networks in various metropolitan areas. This may explain why the Honda traffic feature only works in about 100 cities nationwide - it only works in areas where these sensors are installed. Here's a link to a pdf that gives details about this traffic.com/navteq network being installed as part of the California 511 project. Starting on page 4, there is some info on data collection methods and such. One of the methods is that Nokia phones are used as part of this data collection (page 7), as well as actual sensors installed on the sides of roads that analyze traffic patterns, number of cars per lane, speed of traffic, etc. I can't find anything specific that mentions how or if they are collecting data from just normal GPS/NAV units that don't have a transmitter in them.

[LanceHS]

Yeah, they probably aren't collecting speed data from our vehicles other than the road type sensors you mentioned and the other methods as described in the presentation...although I guess I am contributing due to my use of E-ZPass.


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